The girls mumble in agreement and we begin to practice, focusing on our vocals. I’m still catching my breath for the first few verses, but soon I’m singing seamlessly with the rest of them, filling in the new harmonies with ease. I’m so relieved I didn’t miss the whole practice, but when we finish, I decide to stay behind for a few extra minutes to make up for the time that I did miss. The rest of the girls leave the practice room to hit the vending machines, but Sunhee lingers.

“Don’t stay behind too long, Rachel,” she says. “We’ll probably head back to the villa soon. Come with us, yeah?”

“I have to get back to my shoot with Leah.” I shake my head, exhausted. “It’s a packed schedule.”

“Yeah, I didn’t expect us to have practice today,” Sunhee admits with a shrug. “Lizzie asked for a room this morning because she was feeling shaky on the harmonies. I think she sounds great now, though.”

I blink. It was Lizzie? She’s one of our top vocalists and has never been insecure about her harmonies before.…

“But you guys knew I had the reality show today—it was on the schedule,” I say, fishing for more info on why Lizzie set up the rehearsal when she knew I wouldn’t be free.

“She’s had a lot going on lately.” Sunhee shrugs again. “Maybe she just forgot about your show.”

Yeah right. I think about all the snide remarks she’s made since Leah and I started filming. It’s clear she’s still upset that she hasn’t been able to bring her own sister into the DB family.

I wave goodbye to Sunhee and sigh as I start packing up my sheet music. I’m not going to stop the reality show just because Lizzie’s little sister, Esther, isn’t a K-pop idol. Just like I’m not going to stop developing my fashion line because Youngeun can’t make her light-stick cake pops. Just like I don’t expect Sunhee to give up her radio show just because I didn’t get to have one. Our individual projects are, well, individual. We shouldn’t be trying to sabotage each other when one of us succeeds any more than we should be making fun of each other when one of us fails.